Disinfo: Protests in Belarus would not have happened without external pressure and influence

Summary

The reason for the current internal political events in the country is outside influence. The situation in Belarus is not without challenges, but the main reason for the situation is external. Had there been no external pressure and influence, it would never have happened in Belarus. The western partners of Belarus “have become too active, have gone too far” in relation to the country.

Disproof

This is part of an ongoing Russian disinformation campaign on Belarus based on recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, such as accusing other countries of interference and portraying popular protests against electoral fraud in the country as a Western-led colour revolution. There is no evidence that the protests in Belarus are funded and organised externally and that any Western country was trying to destabilise the situation or create a coup in Belarus. The protests in Belarus erupted to contest the results of the presidential elections in Belarus that took place on the 9 August, which are considered fraudulent by a large part of Belarusian society. The European Union has also stated that the elections were neither free nor fair. The European Council imposed restrictive measures against 40 individuals identified as responsible for repression and intimidation against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists in the wake of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, as well as for misconduct of the electoral process. Read similar disinformation cases: The Baltic States and Poland are blowing Belarus up from the inside, Ukrainian militants are staying in Belarus to carry out a coup d'etat, in Belarus, there are signs of a colour revolution, but hybrid one, and Poland and Lithuania directly sponsor open extremist actions against Belarus.

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Ritm Evrazii (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 216
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 15/10/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Belarus
  • Keywords: West, Protest, Alexander Lukashenko, Colour revolutions
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Disinfo: Ukraine has always been Russian, at least a half of it

Ukraine has always been Russian, at least a half of it. A large number of so-called Russian Ukrainians live in Ukraine – people who have Russian roots, consider themselves Russian and speak Russian. “Russian Ukrainians” make up, if not the majority, then half of the country’s population.

Oct 14, 2020
Disproof

According to a poll conducted in 2017 the number of Ukrainian citizens who consider themselves Ukrainians by nationality is 90.6% of the population, Russian - 6.3%. A recent poll, refererad to in the media states:

For comparison, it is worth citing data on the ethnic composition of the population of Ukraine according to the censuses of 1989 and 2001: Ukrainians - 72.7% and 77.8%, respectively, Russians -22.1 and 17.3%, others - 5.2 % and 4.9%.

If we look at history we can also find many examples showing that Kyiv existed before Moscow, and Ukraine before Russia. Kievan Rus was in existence and history books long before Russia, and hundreds of years before Moscow, and as this scholarly debunk points out, there were even clear linguistic differences as early as the 14th century.

Disinfo: Ukraine is under obvious external control, Zelenskyy is being blackmailed

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is forced to act according to a written plan. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is repeating the steps of his predecessor Petro Poroshenko in Donbas because he is being blackmailed and not allowed to deviate from the established course. Ukraine is under obvious external control. This is already recognised by absolutely everyone.

Oct 14, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory and disinformation narrative, without any evidence to support the claim. The narrative alleges that Ukraine is under external control. You can find several disinformation cases on Ukraine being under foreign control in our database. Equally, no evidence is presented of Zelenskyy being blackmailed. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine is not controlled by any foreign government or organisation: not the USA, IMF, NATO, the West or George Soros. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world, including the EU.

Disinfo: Ukraine became the main importer of Crimean agricultural products

Ukraine has become the largest buyer of agricultural products produced in Crimea. This is evidenced by the data of the Ministry of Agriculture of Crimea. This year, products manufactured in Crimea were exported to 12 countries of the world, but 61% of the total volume was imported by Ukraine. It is worth more than 8 million US dollars since the beginning of 2020.

Oct 14, 2020
Disproof

Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Crimea. There is no evidence that Ukraine is importing agricultural products from the occupied Crimea. According to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine from 16.12.2015 № 1035 “On the restriction of supplies of certain goods (works, services) from the temporarily occupied territory to another territory of Ukraine and/or from another territory of Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territory”, it is prohibited to supply goods under all customs regimes from the temporarily occupied territory to another territory of Ukraine during the period of temporary occupation.